Redskins-Packers, Best and Worst

Best and worst from the Redskins' 16-13 overtime win over the Packers.

Best Friend: Post, Goal.

Worst Friend: Coin. The Redskins are now 0-2 on overtime coin tosses. Got to work on that.

Best News: Redskins games get decided on the final play. They're exciting. Sundays are now thrilling instead of depressing. Four of the team's five games have been absolutely, irrevocably decided on the game's final, play, where you actually didn't know who would win until the final snap of the game. And on all three of the team's wins, there was a point when they seemed to have lost -- when Roy Williams caught that touchdown, when the ball landed in Jason Avant's hands, and when Mason Crosby's long field-goal attempt was drifting toward the goal posts.

Worst News: I got nothing.

Best Meat and Potatoes: Sometime around midnight last night, LaRon Landry took a photo of some meat and potatoes and put it on his Twitter account. I assume he meant that he was actually eating steak late at night. Then he said he was going for a workout. Then he won Washington a football game.

Best Player: Brandon Banks. Love him. Adore him. Want to scoop him up and cuddle him every time he completely turns around the field position.

Worst Penalties: Banks is just pure fun, like Big League Chew or Tecate with lime. His first kickoff return of the season went for 62 yards and helped everyone have fun for a second or two, until the Packers started pointing to the yellow fabric on the ground. Chris Horton was the culprit. He ruined our fun. And in overtime, Washington's lovely field position was ruined by a Roydell Williams bad block. Just let Banks run free, fellas.

Best Quarterback: In this game, it was probably Aaron Rodgers, the 24th pick of the 2005 draft. Jason Campbell, by the way, was the 25th pick of the 2005 2004 draft.

Best Second-Half Offense: Before Sunday, the Redskins were being outscored 52-13 after halftime. After Sunday, you can make it 55-26. Look, it's improvement, anyhow.

Worst TV Graphic: For the 703rd consecutive week, the crew broadcasting the Redskins' game -- in this case, on Fox -- used a nifty graphic to show all the coaches who have worked under Dan Snyder, and their personal win-loss records. I mean, I've beaten that drum as much as anyone, but at this point I'd rather see a graphic highlighting the career catches of Anthony Armstrong or something.

Best 2008 Draft Class Impact: As the 2008 class shrinks in size, you have to take the victories where you can. Kareem Moore was in the right place yet again in the first quarter, recovering a fumble forced by LaRon Landry. That makes three straight games with a turnover for Moore, the first Redskin to do so since Sean Taylor in 2007.

Worst 2008 Draft Class Impact: Moments later, Moore was victimized on the 71-yard Brandon Jackson run, whiffing on an attempted tackle near the line of scrimmage. Devin Thomas could have done that.

Worst Career Move: Speaking of whom, in training camp, the Redskins had two offensive skill position players who had co-starred with Fantasia in music videos: Thomas and Larry Johnson. As of right now, they have zero. Let that be a lesson to you, aspiring football players who enjoy Fantasia's music.

Best Tackle-Breaking: Chris Cooley. His performance on Washington's final drive of regulation was the reason why he has remained an enduring fan favorite, with like 17 local radio shows to boot. On his key catch on that drive, he broke at least three tackles.

Worst Hands: Seriously, you need to ask? Go to last week and copy and paste. You could cover Carlos Rogers with diseased mucus and he still couldn't catch a cold.

Best Former Receiver: Brandon Lloyd caught 5 passes for 135 yards and a touchdown for the Broncos. He now has just less than 600 receiving yards for the season. Where in the hell did this come from?

Worst Former Quarterback: Todd Collins went 6-16 for 32 yards and 4 interceptions for the Bears. Not a lot of nostalgia for that kind of performance. He's the last quarterback to start a playoff game for the Redskins.

Best Go For It: The 4th-and-2 Washington went for early in the fourth quarter turned sour, on an ineffectual bomb to a tumbling Armstrong. But I loved the decision, anyhow.

Worst Fashion Choice: White pants. Come on now. Washington went 1-1 in the gold pants at home, and looked damn good doing so. New era, new look, even if it was an old look first. Maybe they thought the pink breast-cancer awareness towels would clash, but I completely endorse a return to gold.

Best Improvisation: With the Redskins' offense showing the vitality of William Howard Taft, McNabb bought time with his feet and then launched a 52-yard strike to Santana Moss near the end of the first half. It was Washington's fifth passing play of at least 50 yards this season, which is tops in the NFL. It was also the fourth straight game McNabb's thrown one of them, the first time a Skins quarterback has done that since 1987.

Best Weird Football Play: On one of the game's crucial third-down plays in the fourth quarter, McNabb's pass to Keiland Williams got deflected in the air and landed in the arms of a diving Armstrong, who rolled for the first down.

Worst Basic Football Play: Moore's fumble recovery gave Washington the ball in scoring position with a chance to take the lead. A 22-yard loss on a bad Casey Rabach snap took them out of scoring position.

Best Goal-Line Play: Lorenzo Alexander found himself in some tough coverage situations on Sunday, but he sure came through when Aaron Rodgers tried to throw to Andrew Quarless in the end zone on 4th-and-goal, breaking up the pass to give Washington the ball.

Best Acquisition: Hunter Smith gets signed mid-week, comes in from off the street, punts 8 times for a 44.3-yard average, drops five punts inside the 20, and digs the ball out of the ground to help Graham Gano hit a field goal. I was never that into Josh Bidwell, anyhow.

Best Sport: The Redskins lost to the Texans, who got drilled by the Giants. The Redskins also lost to the Rams, who got drilled by the Lions. But the Redskins still went out and beat the presumptive NFC favorites. Seriously, bless this sport.

"Best Player: Brandon Banks. Love him. Adore him. Want to scoop him up and cuddle him every time he completely turns around the field position."

HAHA I love it!! I want to do! He's such a cute little fella. So electric and a threat to take it to the house everytime he has it. He was pretty much the only bright spot in the first half. Beats having Randle El anyday!!

"Brandon Lloyd caught 5 passes for 135 yards and a touchdown for the Broncos. He now has just less than 600 receiving yards for the season. Where in the hell did this come from? "
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Check him for steroids!

Definitely not a helmet to helmet hit. The replay shows him pulling his arms back at the last minute because he knew Rodgers let the ball go. Either way, Rodgers' pass was off target because of Jarmon.

There was no helmet-to-helmet hit on the interception (see comment by cwbyh8r). The concussion must have came on the prior drive, when Rogers rolled out and was drilled as he let the pass go.

Posted by: jm111
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Aikman and Buck actually commented that Rodgers was looking woozy as he called a timeout and walked off the field near the end of the game. I'm betting he was concussed before the Jarmon knockdown.

We need to cut Rabach and Heyer. They are consistently WEAK! Rabach has been blowing chances for us for 3 years. My throat is still sore and my voice hoarse from pulling my weight as part of the twelfth man yesterday and I wouldn't have it any other way! Hail to the Redskins!

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